"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet."
― Aristotle
Tiger Beetle Season 2023 is on!
It was 158 days between yesterday and my final cicindelid observation of 2022 ― November 1st, to be precise, my latest-ever observation of a tiger beetle. With temperatures finally climbing into the 60s over the weekend, a trip to Spring Green Preserve seemed prudent to this naturalist. The prairie had recently been burned, giving the landscape sort of an eerie other-worldly look. Finding a beetle necessitated a substantial effort, as the they had not yet emerged when I first arrived.
I walked the trail from the sandy area near the first corner over to the other sand blow just before the woods at the eastern end of the parcel. I was just about ready to call it a day when I decided to hike the route one final time. Walking the last stretch of sandy trail, I flushed an insect that was too large to be a fly or plant hopper. I was expecting Oblique-lined, but it was a little too small for that species. Festive was my guess, and Festive it was.
Given tiger beetle diversity at Spring Green, early April doesn't leave too many other possibilities. It's early for Big Sand and many of the others are found in other micro-habitats at the preserve. Splendids don't emerge until late April, but they're usually on the rocky outcroppings atop the bluff, as my longtime readers know.
Based on maculation patterns, I observed 4 individual Festives ― there will be many more in the upcoming weeks. In fact, temperatures are going to soar into the 70s this week, which ought to spell gangbusters for those fortunate entomologists that don't have a regular day job.
This beetle is cleaning one of its limbs using the tarsal claws of its forelimb.
Ready for hunting!
This is a different individual, as you can see by the connected front maculation. The prey item appears to be an extremely small beetle. I couldn't get a good look at it until the voracious predator cast aside the elytra of its meal.
Nom nom nom nom nom ...
See there in the lower-left? I don't know the identification of the tiny beetle, but it's as dead as Julius Caesar now! The open-mandible shot is often only achieved while a tiger beetle continues to masticate its prey. In such a photograph, one gets a better sense of their astonishingly complex mouthparts.
This is yet another unique individual given its slightly more greenish tones and if you look carefully the leading dot of the front maculation is smaller than the leading beetle in this series.
Serenading me while I worked were songs of Eastern Towhees and Field Sparrows. Other birds at the prairie included Song Sparrows, Brown Trasher, Eastern Meadowlarks, Eastern Bluebirds, a lone American Kestrel, and many Turkey Vultures flying overhead.
I was pretty stoked to get my first tiger beetle of the 2023 insecting season. In fact, I confess it was more exciting than any avian observation so far this year. I don't think I'll try to get all 16 of Wisconsin's tiger beetles in a year or season. I was glad to finally get Boreal Long-lipped last year, but those are not trips (Cow Path, too) I need to make every year. Plus, the 14 species I can get in the Sauk area are more than any self-respecting tiger beetler requires for study. For me the juice is photographing them and watching what they do ― I prefer to broaden my knowledge of these magnificent monsters of the sandy trails rather than spend too much time on the road.
Again, the rather other-worldly appearance of the prairie with crispy cacti and deceased cedars.
Mornings have been spent with my birding posse as we scour the creek corridor for returning migratory birds. I added around 30 first-of-year (FOY) birds to my annual list, putting me almost into contention with Dane County's most Reliable Birders. The Top 10 are well over 100 species for the year, and most of them have entered north of one hundred checklists for 2022 thus far. That's not just a lot of birding, but a lot of data entry.
It's also time to seek spring ephemerals, and first on the 2023 itinerary is Pasque Flower Anemone patens, which is a personal favorite of mine. At the Pheasant Branch prairie remnant, I would estimate at least 50 individual plants, but there are likely many more I didn't find.
I didn't spend a lot of time off the trail because I didn't want to explain to other trail users that I have permission explore Pheasant Branch at my whim. Naturally, I wore a pair of shoes that were recently selected from my archive that had been cleaned to render nil the possibility of bringing any invasive species to the spot.
Combined with the tiger beetles, it was a good macro photography weekend workout.
To my surprise ...
A nifty Garter Snake mating ball! This was a small one, consisting of around 4 to 6 males and I'm pretty sure there were two females, but only one was part of the ball ― the other slithered by, but didn't catch the attention of the preoccupied males.
Just look at that face!
My I have a friend who just absolutely hates snakes, so it was a good thing she wasn't there. However, her husband wanted to photograph the Pasque Flowers as well, so he went up the drumlin after I called to tell them both that the flowers were in bloom. Naturally, she took a hard pass after I told her there were snakes about the area.
But I mean, really ― aren't they adorable?
All images © 2023 Mike McDowell